That’s right, I’m Retired!
And, here I have combined two different articles of mine for efect. The first half I wrote when I turned 65. The second half are my reflections on then, Now and what I am afraid about tomorrow and our future as retirees.
Click on the link below to read the article.
Here I am, RETIRED, Reflections of a Retiree.
by Don Bobbitt,2014
Copyright, DonBobbitt, 2014, All Rights Reserved
Yes, I am old enough to remember.
I remember when I was a young worker for a major electronics manufacturing location and they, our government, told us that paying our SS and Medicare taxes was a GOOD THING!
Yep! If we paid those taxes we would be set for life when we retired.
A comfortable RETIREMENT and an assurance of top-level MEDICAL CARE was ours.
We just had to TRUST our government to take care of us!
TRUST?
TAKE CARE?
What a Joke!
Now we are the aging pariahs of a system that just wants us to hurry up and DIE!
Oh, and this was while our arrogant Congress voted themselves separation from “the peoples system” and into one of the must expensive and wasteful system of medical care designed just for them!
FULL COVERAGE! for Everything! For LIFE!
Yes, I remember!
DON
The Smart Retirement Plan for Boomers
Forty Years ago, even less than that, if you were a frugal and smart person, you had some type of Retirement plan. And, often, these were savings accounts, funds, IRA‘s and eventually 401k’s, among others, all of which offered you the option of Deferred Taxes when you drew your money out after you retired.
Along with all of your other company benefits, if you were lucky enough to have the extra income, you were allowed to put a certain amount of your income into an IRA or 401k which are government approved and tax deferred savings plans.
These retirement plans were, what our government, our employers, our bankers, our investment counselors, even our friends told us, were the THING TO DO!.
And, I did it what everyone called the smart thing to do! What a great sounding thing, it seemed, at that time!
I was also told, by my employer that my company medical insurance would cover me until I reached the ripe age of 65.
You see, I was told that, at that point, my Medicare Insurance that, by the way, I had contributed an enormous of money to each year of my career, would take over and my company insurance would, then, be cancelled.
I asked why, because I had worked all of those years with my company Insurance, and why couldn’t I keep it for my Golden Years?
Well, Silly Man! Because Medicare would be my primary Insurance carrier, and my company Insurance would be redundant to my new Medicare coverage.
Being a trusting soul, I plodded along, working those long hours that my employer required of me, and putting away a little cash whenever I could, for those little luxuries I would want in my retirement years.
Doing this, I was told, I could live the Good Life when I retired, with Social Security and Medicare paying my basic bills and Health costs while my Savings would be there for those extra luxuries when I needed or wanted them
Oh, Yeah! I was on track in my quest for Retirement Nirvana! And, by the way, those deferred taxes were nothing to worry about!
I was told that this was because I would not be working at a “Real Job” anymore and my real income would be very low.
With this lower income, the taxes on what I would withdraw each year, would be so low, as to be negligible. Nothing to worry about! Boy was I set!
But, as I grew older and closer to my retirement age, something started to smell funny, whenever I looked at my iron-clad retirement plan.
The Raping of Social Security and Medicare Benefits for Boomers was a subtle and devious thing, perpetuated by politicians who cared nothing for the future of America, or a whole generation of Americans.
Whiile our generation were working away, with our hopes and dreams for our retirement years, You know the old adage, with;
Our Eye on the Ball,
Our shoulder to the Grindstone, and our
Hands on the Wheel,
While we were keeping the country running, what we didn’t watch was the way our government was slowly but steadily raping our financial future.
Our Congress was slowly placing newer and newer limits on our future SS and Medicare benefits over time. they did it with all of their little amendments, they were happily and insidiously stuck at the end of the other bills and laws they passed.
Each of these changes slowly chipped away at my and my peers’ futures. And we just kept on working with our delusions of retirement security.
Just like the Snake Oil Salesman, who, while grandly telling and showing you one thing, was at the same time, smoothly slipping other things past you; our Congress was doing the same thing to us with those little amendments and additions to Bills that were literally stealing our rightful future benefits from us.
First, and most importantly, they raped the Fund that we all contributed our monies to for our retirement and left us an IOU.
Crazy huh?
An IOU from us to us.
Even a Snake Oil salesman would be embarrassed by some of the things that our supposed representatives did to us, behind our backs, while we worked on towards our retirement.
Our ancestors fought for their independence against a government that, among other things, taxed them multiple times on certain items.
We Boomers, on the other hand, barely lifted our eyelids when our Congress started collecting Income taxes on Social Security payments.
We, the American public now pay; Income Taxes, Social Security Taxes, and Medicare Taxes, taxes on our savings interest, Stock dividends, whole life insurance interest, and more, not to mention what many of the states also collect, out of our salaries. Who knew it would come to this level of taxation before we even reitred?
Now, unlike the original SS plan, and the promises we were given about our future security, our government just keeps on filling their coffers with increasing taxes of every kind.
I, personally,consider this situation of our to be as bad as double Taxation, and it hurts.
It hurts because my original retirement plan never included the loss of an additional hundreds of dollars of what was my projected retirement income, to be stolen from me.
An IRA, by the way, that I had two plans for.
First, I planned to withdraw a certain percentage from my IRA each year for “FUN THINGS“, like; a little vacation, visits to the Kids and Grandchildren (that happen to live several states away), maybe a little cruise for the wife and I, and other such of the dreams of a future retiree.
Second, I was comfortable that I had enough money to pay for those CATASTROPHIC things that happen unexpectedly in life.
Things like; a new Furnace/AC or a new roof on the house, a new car when the old one was worn out, and such other “luxuries”.
These are all things that happen over to time to us or anyone else, and we need to be prepared for them, or we can get into serious financial trouble very quickly. Right?
Here’s the problem; the IRS wants their cut, and they want it without exception, and they want it the year that you take out any of your IRA money.
So, lets say that you live in the South and your AC dies, or you live in the North and your Furnace dies. Or, some other major, unplanned expense rears its ugly head.
Anyway, lets use an AC, and I mean the thing dies, Kaput! So you call the repair guy, he eventually shows up in his shiny white truck, removes the covers from the unit and starts checking things.
Finally, not able to stand the suspense another minute you walk around the house and there he stands, at attention, his ball cap in his hand over his chest as he slowly says a prayer over your old unit.
He turns to you, forces a small tear from his eye, and proceeds to go through a litany of problems that cannot be repaired and suggesting that you need a totally new unit.
OK, I got a little melodramatic there for a moment, but let’s say you need a new AC; so you call around for the best deal.
And, BAM! It hits you.
Your old AC has died after 15 years of faithful service, and even though you suspected that you might need one soon, you had no idea of the present PRICE for a new unot!
Your old AC originally cost a third of what a new one costs today. And this inflated expense was never in your emergency planning. I mean, inflation? In the future? Nobody told me to plan for Inflation!
You know that you don’t really have as much in your savings as you once planned, because that ugly thing called inflation has already pushed your everyday expenses to the point where you can barely get by.
You have already given up many of the “Luxuries” that you once enjoyed, like;
So, you look at what you have to cover this new cost and the only thing you have left is your IRA. Your IRA and your withdrawal plan, that no longer supports the real expenses of a retiree is not the size it should be and you have been forced to take more each year than it will support.
You obviously just don’t have much in it, but now, you need to get some more money out to replace that bad AC.
So, here is where many Retirees end up with their IRA money. YES, they understood that they had to pay taxes on their IRA money when they took it out.
But, NO, they never dreamed that;
So, here you sit, pulling out much more of your IRA, than you ever dreamed you would need, for yet another major expense, and at the same time you have to pull out enough to pay the taxes that you will owe on what you removed, when next April rolls around.
A week later, you sit in your hot house, with your sick wife, eating a meal of the cheapest foods you can find at the store, and try to give thanks for what you have.
You choke up a little, thankful that you have taken care of a major household problem (this time), that they will be installing, now that you gave them your check.
But, you look at your future as a Retiree, and wonder, how long and how many more emergency situations will arise before you are like those other old couples that you see in the news.
Because, you did what everyone told you to do. You worked your whole life, saving for your retirement and a little bit of the good life before you died.
Now, you just sit around at night, in front of your old TV and wonder about so many things that scare you.
Will you or your wife accumulate so many medical bills (you know your 20% of a cost that is increasing a a pace far in excess of any CPI (which is flashed in your face as a fair measurement of costs) that the hospital or a collection agency takes your house from you and puts you out on the street.
Will one of you die and the remaining one have to live on even less money when the other ones SS check goes away. Even though you had originally planned for that IRA money to be there for just this, now circumstances have changed to where you are using it up so fast, so early?
You sit and you wonder; What the HELL happened to my life and who did this to me?
Why Friend, Congress did it to us all, as they;
So, yeah, take that extra income tax from me on my meager IRA dollars.
And, please, use it to subsidize “pickle growth” experiments, or use it to protect some damned snail in some creek out west, or just send it in large trailers to Afghanistan and other nations that hate Americans, to be divied out to the corrupt officials there.
Meanwhile, I, and my fellow retirees, along with the millions in our country without jobs, and the children that are not getting adequate food?
Why, we are happy to stand and stare through the containment fences our congress has built around us and watch our government say; damn the home-front, let’s spend these fool’s monies on the frivolous things that we love.
Tax my IRA!
My shrinking IRA that was sitting in a bank and available for loans to so many other Americans, for home improvements, home loans, car loans, etc. (any one of which would make a contribution to OUR ECONOMY).?
Please help me deplete it as fast as possible.
Then my wife and I (and many of my fellow retirees) can go onto the Federal dole as soon as is possible.
Then You can really take care of us; you the few remaining taxpayers, our children and grand-children, while you wait for us, the poor retirement planners, to all die off!
Isn’t that what you want to do?
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| Doctor pic by caricaturss, via Flickr |
This link is to a great Hub by fellow Hub Writer, “Chuck”.
It explains what the normal person should do when they need to find a new Doctor.
Regardless of the reasons for needing a new Doctor, you want to pick someone that meets your needs, your insurance company’s needs as well as be someone who has a compatible personality with your Own.
Check this Link Out.
Hub- Finding_a_Doctor_near_you
Don Bobbitt
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| Ryan-pic by DonkeyHotey via flickr |
It seems that we Seniors are eating too much Chicken at the political picnic!
And, if history is any lesson on how corporations and governments operate, I and the rest of us Boomers, are in serious trouble.
I figure that once the younger people of America get put on “Coupons” for their future insurance,
I assume we older ones with be the next ones who get the shaft.
It would be a natural and obvious next step for the government as Medicare costs go up, if for no other reason than that there will be less people on Medicare and thus the shared costs will be less. This in itself would drive our Congress to give we remaining participants our own “Coupons”. And applaud themselves for doing it.
Here is the thing about COUPONS that we should all remember.
1- let’s say that Congress approves and issues a Coupon for $150 per month for you to go out and buy insurance yourself with independent insurance companies.
2- Everyone goes out and purchases insurance coverage for $140 per month at first.
3- Then, 3 years later inflation has made the insurance companies charge $170 per month.
Where do the “Coupon” holders then stand?
Well, they write a check for the difference themselves, every month, until Congress meets and approves an increase in the value of a COUPON.
4- So, after another year, they place a bill before congress for a COUPON increase $170, right?
5- Well, If you assume there are 50-Million people on Medicare that’s $20 times 50-million or over 1-Billion dollars would be added to the National debt.
6- So with this kind of potential increase to the debt, there will be a lot of fighting over whether an increase will be approved at all.
7- And if it is approved then they will, in all probability, add provisions to cut the coverage available and thus reduce that awful 1-Billion dollar future debt.
This is my scenario analysis and as we Boomers and Seniors die off, our combined influence and leverage in congress will slowly decline until we are an insignificant force to be dealt with, at the worst times in our lives, when we are in our eighties or older.
And, if my scenario is correct, by the time Congress did anything to raise the coverage and implement the change, the insurance companies will probably have raised their rates to $180.
See the problem?
So,get ready to be put on the perpetual CATCH-UP Wheel of shrinking Medical Care.
Don
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| A Sunset on the planet called Earth before it was destroyed. |
I don’t know if you are my age or not, but back in the Sixties, there was a great, camp, book that everyone, who considered themselves Cool, had to read. It was originally a radio show, but quickly turned into a book called “The HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy”.
Even though it was a purely comedic work, I, along with so many others my age, read it, related to so much from it, and had many discussions on it’s “hidden” meanings, how it applied to our world then, and even more. It was a Camp hit of that time.
And, if you haven’t read it, it is still entertaining, even today.
Because I had read it so many times, and it was so entrenched into my mind, throughout my adult life, I would, occasionally, throw out one of the many ambiguous quotes from the book, in meetings, and such, just to see how many people caught what I had said.
Often, my comments would be met with laughs or at least a smile, and a few times, even a few responding comments, that only a fellow 60’s “Hippie” type person would understand.
Of course, over time, as we aged, and our working peers became younger, the responses and finally even the smiles disappeared, all to be replaced with questioning looks.
But, I really didn’t care, and with my particular and often peculiar personality (or so I have been told), I continued, at the appropriate moment, of course, to sling one of my generational lines into conversations, Just for the Hell of it usually.
Anyway, one of my favorites was. “Good Bye and thanks for the Fish!”
I won’t go into a lot of details about it here.
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| Leave MY Fish Alone! |
Suffice it to say that it was a critical line from one of the most important characters in the book, and from the story itself, it was an important statement to all of the people of Earth.
If you don’t understand, but I have piqued your interest, then read the book.
If you were able to pull the statement from the cobwebs of your mind, and are sitting there, smiling, then maybe there is hope for us Retirees, yet.
Hope that we can wake up and see the changes being wrought in our world, and try to stop or at least change it for the better and for us as Baby Boomers, before it is too late.
You, and I, need to recognize the two-faced guys for who they are and we need to burst from our lethargic positions, remove their crowns and reject the insanity that we have allowed them to spout.
And, if nothing else, we need to see that our own, personal, “Boomer” insanity is made a higher priority in the order of the cosmos that we presently live in.
We can find the great computer “Deep Thought” quite easily. I mean, it’s just sitting there, in plain sight, so that is no longer the problem.
With access and a little control over Deep Thought, we, the Seniors of the world, can band together and present a unified front to the wicked Mouse distorted chaos that reigns as truth, in government, and especially, in DC, today.
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| I have found MY Towel! |
As long as we make sure that we have our towels with us, we can march together, even if only via email and phone calls, and scare the President of the Galaxy into a new consideration of the real “Question”.
That is, once we have explained to him and his fellow Mice in Washington that even though the answer is 42, he needs to understand the real question, and not some nonsensical financial suppositions that are touted by mere power hungry Congressmen.
So, Retirees, Seniors, Baby Boomers, old Hippies, and all of the concerned people of the world, lets unite, and pose the real and honest great question to the Cosmos.
We need to ask them; “Why are you eating All of Our Fish?”.
IF we can get them to leave out Fish alone, then maybe we can find a way to grow our Fish, and have not only, enough for ourselves, but maybe, if we use our towels of truth effectively, we can even generate more to share with others like the X-Gens, and Y-Gens, etc.
But, we do need to move now, and tell them; “You can Keep Your Thanks, and we will Keep our Fish!”
Along with; “And, if you don’t listen to us, we will have your own, personal little secret planet of corruption and self-involvement ……….. destroyed!” We know who to call, and the price is relatively cheap, considering all else in the Cosmos!
As an aged, silver haired Boomer, who has found his towel in my old attic chest that I call memories, I am now awake to these happenings, and you need to join me as I say;
“I want my Fish left alone!?”
Don Bobbitt
I think people our age need to start literally preaching to our fellow public.
First: You are right, I think where 20 years ago we were in a GRAY area somewhere between True Democracy, and some popular Socialistic trends and laws being implemented.
I am afraid that, as you imply, we have run, not walked, as a nation into a very dark Gray area that is approaching a level of Socialism that even our European friends are finding cannot be sustained under all economic conditions.
Second: I have to remind everyone, and seemingly, even you, that our generation paid into an INSURANCE program, called by chance Social Security. It was designed to “Pay for itself”.
And, as you know, if we had not allowed our democratic friends, starting with LBJ, to rape our “insurance Account” we would not be having the rather mindless conversations in DC about cutting Seniors “Retirement Insurance Benefits”.
But, alas, we sat on our butts and did not keep a vigilant eye on our “representatives” and now we almost need to turn into a revolutionary force to get what we paid for back.
And, I do mean Revolutionary. I don’t think anyone in our generation expected, paid for, or suspected that such a small and devious group would steal our money and turn us into the recipients of a Socialist entitlement.
But , I am afraid, that is where we are at the moment, until we find a unified voice, and force some hard solutions.
My personal fear is that we will, as a group, force another Congressional FLUSH of participants due to our anger, and allow another crop of inexperienced idiots who know the right words to use, into Congress, with similar idiotic and factionalized radical voting, rather than negotiated goals that have a solution for ALL of the people they represent.
Third: Medicare, the Insurance program, originally designed as a benefit for the elderly retired people of America, once they no longer had health insurance from their personal and company policies, somehow got turned into an across the board entitlement for everyone in our country, including; Illegal Aliens, Drug Addicts, the Jobless, Felons, and their spouses and children. Now, that’s Socialism.
Now, obviously, someone needs to be dropped from the public Dole. Who do we pick? Well, my fear is that like so many things that need the approval of politicians, they are going to listen to the most vocal. We, the Baby Boomers, the working Class, the Honest citizens of our country, need to get LOUD and we need to get LOUD fast.
I am truly sorry. but, a sick Felon, under house arrest (just happened with over 150 drug dealers in Tampa), has no right to Food Stamps and Medicare while being kept on House arrest.
They need to be kept in Jail, and if the Jail is full, we need to tent them up in camps, if necessary.
And, the illegal Alien? If he is sick or hungry? He can come to the local government agency. he can be fed, he can be treated for his illness.
But, He can also be put onto a Bus or Plane back to his native country.
You See, We cannot afford to support all of these classifications of freeloading people any more.
Damn, I feel better after saying this. WHEW!
Don Bobbitt
MEANDERINGS of DON BOBBITT 